A team of z/OS testers and system programmers run a Parallel Sysplex on which we perform the final verification of a z/OS release and System z hardware and System Storage before they become generally available to clients.

For details about the environment in which we do our testing including our Parallel Sysplex environments (including hardware, software and security configuration) and our test workloads, refer to our IBM Platform Test - System z library.

The Linux Virtual Server team’s primary responsibility is to emulate leading-edge customer environments, workloads, and activities. This includes running Linux native on System z and as a z/VM guest in a heterogeneous Linux server environment.

After general availability (GA), testing of z/OS continues through Consolidated Service Test (CST), where z/OS service along with key subsystems and tools service continues to be tested together. CST recommends service on a quarterly and monthly basis with published results.